Published on Sep 16, 2023
The objective: My experiment was about water and magnets. I used the magnets to move the water because water is diamagnetic, which means that it tends to move away from magnets and electromagnets. My design was an angel food pie tin with the magnets evenly spaced around the inside perimeter of it. The rubber would back the magnets, acting as a magnetic shield. For my experiment, I used 8 ludicrously strong magnets, but they were not string enough. I had 4 accurate and successful trials, and many other unsuccessful trials. My experiment had many, many, ups and downs, but this was extremely fun.
Water runs from the magnet, sloshing over itself in its hurry to get away. Water is diamagnetic. Diamagnetic means that it goes away from magnets.
I want to know if the government can use water’s diamagnetic property to spend less on dams and to help fish get up fish ladders. I also want to know more about why water is diamagnetic. More specifically, I want to know if I can move water with magnets.
Once I was sure that I would be doing my project for the science fair on creating a current in water with magnets, I went on the Internet, found a website that was good, and learned one thing. I tried another and learned absolutely nothing. Later, I decided to call Evan because he had mentioned a family friend of his who is an electrical engineer who might know something about my experiment. I got his email and emailed him asking if he knew anything about my project. He replied and said that he would be happy to help, but needed me to explain more clearly what I was trying to do. He asked if the current was in the water or being created by the water. He asked if my goal was to basically move water with magnets. He got more information from somewhere and helped me think rationally enough not to throw stuff, because I was getting very frustrated with the Internet.
After we agreed that the best way to proceed was to search magnetic shields, I typed “magnetic shields” into the search bar. I found three websites but only one of them was useful. Then he indicated several websites and when I researched them further, only one managed to provide useful information. He mentioned that Evan had some steel, which I needed. A while later, I went on the Internet for ten minutes and learned nothing. At this point, if the Internet had been a jar, I would have crushed it until it was tiny little pieces of glass.
Later, I went to the Deschutes county library’s website and searched diamagnetic. Either no one has written a book about diamagnetic things and the properties that they have, or the library doesn’t have it.
After that I tried the Internet again and ended up at Ask.com. Someone had asked a question about magnets, so I decided to check the answer. It was not of much use to me, so I was about to give up when I saw a link in the resources for the answer’s question. The link proved to be very useful, and I found multiple new things about magnets and their history.
Then I tried Youtube. There was a video about magnets and currents on SmarterEveryDay, but it was about the electrical type of current, not the current that I am looking for.
My goal is to move water with magnets. I learned that diamagnetic means repelled by magnets. This can be applied to water. It has to doThe word paramagnetic means attracted to magnets, or magnetic. It is also the opposite of diamagnetic. Through a website that I found, I learned that steel is a good magnetic shield. Probably more important, a magnetic shield is something that has the ability to bounce the magnetic waves off of it, like someone might bounce on top of a trampoline, or a bed. I, as a human, am very slightly diamagnetic, which I think is amazing.
I am going to need some very strong magnets for my experiment to work.
There are multiple types of magnets. Neodymium magnets is one of these. A neodymium magnet is a rare earth magnet.
It is impossible to absorb or stop a magnet’s magnetic waves. It is only possible to redirect them. The size of the magnet can affect a magnet’s strength, however.
The first magnetic material found was the lodestone. It was found that if someone got a small rod of lodestone and tied it to a string, one end of it would always point north. It was a good source of navigation on ships. Now, some ships are powered by magnets. There was a plan to use electromagnets to anchor huge ships to the dock. The electromagnets would be placed in a way that would ensure that they would not penetrate into the ship too far and end up damaging anything valuable inside the cargo hold.
The reason that magnets will point is because they have vector qualities. Vector qualities means that they have a magnitude and a direction. There is something called scalar, which is sort of the opposite of vector. Scalar means that it has magnitude, but not direction. The vector field surrounds a magnet.
A hydrologist is someone who studies water. Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD for short) is the study of the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids. Salt water is one of these.
If you had a strong enough magnet, you could levitate a frog. Even molecules are diamagnetic and paramagnetic. Moreover, this could be the information that I need. I am going to have use rubber duckies or food coloring to see if the water is moving or not.
Throughout the research process, I greatly improved my skills as a researcher in general. I improved my skills and patience with the Internet, as well as with interviews by email. I learned that I must be a very patient person in order to be able to get a lot of good information off the Internet. I think that the best thing to do when I get stumped is call someone I know of who might know something about my research topic, or knows someone who does.
I learned that it is humanly possible to have some fun and discover new things when I am doing a research project. I did not get bored out of my mind within five minutes.
I am proud that I improved so much and was able to help John with his project by recommending my dad as a resource for his project because he used to work at Nike. He has mentioned that my dad was the best resource that he had.
In the future, I will be paying more attention to magnets and how much the world depends on them.
I believe that I have expanded my knowledge about magnets greatly and think that magnets could change the world.
Is salt water or tap water more diamagnetic
I think salt water will be more diamagnetic, because salt is diamagnetic
◊Rubber
◊Magnets
◊Angel food pie tin
◊Food coloring
◊Timer
◊Tape
1)Gather the necessary materials (Rubber ducks optional)
2)Place the magnets and the rubber in the angel food pie tin withthe rubber behind the magnets, with even amounts of space between the magnets.
3)Fill the angel food pie tin with 4 cups of tap water, then immediately wait 30 seconds
4)After the 30 seconds have passed, put 3 drops of food coloring in the water and mark spot with tape
5)Immediately after putting the three drops in the water start timing.
6)As soon as the color drops have gone all of the way around to where they were originally put in, stop timing.
7)Record results and repeat steps 3-6 3 times
8)Fill the angel food pie tin with 4 cups of salt water, then immediately wait 30 seconds
9)After the 30 seconds have passed,put 3 drops of food coloring in the water.
10)Immediately after putting the three drops in the water start timing.
11)As soon as the color has gone all of the way around to where they were originally put in, stop timing.
12)Repeat 8-11 three times
13)Record and conclude your results
Throughout the research process, I greatly improved my skills as a researcher in general. I improved my skills and patience with the Internet, as well as with interviews by email. I learned that I must be a very patient person in order to be able to get a lot of good information off the Internet. I think that the best thing to do when I get stumped is call someone I know of who might know something about my research topic, or knows someone who does.
“What is a magnetic shield?” Shielding materials-K and J magnetics. December 29, 2013. http://www.kjmagnetics.com/blog.asp?=shieldingmaterials
Wilson, Paul. Email. Interview. Electrical Engineer. December 29, 2013Wondermagnet. January 8, 2014. wondermagnet.com/magfag.html